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I'm creating a blog and I will purchase my own domain name. It will be a blog mainly, but I don't exclude to expand it later by adding other features (like an e-commerce platform , a module for contacts, and so on...)

I'm planning to use the .com extension. Is it advisable to purchase other top level domain extenions and lock out the competition? I'm only planning on using the one.

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It is almost impossible completely "lock up a brand" by buying it for every top level domain. There are hundreds of top level domains with new ones coming online all the time. Only well funded companies have enough money to spend on that.

I have traditionally purchased the .com, .org and .net together. But at this point I'm questioning the necessity of that. It is unlikely for somebody else to create very much confusion by putting up a site on another top level domain.

  • Google is very good about ranking the original site with the best content in the first position of search.
  • If you trademark your name, you will have trademark law on your side and you can wrest domains away from squatters using trademark law if you really need to.

If you are setting up the site on something other than a .com, I'd purchase the .com as well because it is often the default for type in traffic. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother trying to get your domain name on lots of different TLDs.

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    Absolutely true. There are businesses out there making a very good living for themselves whose only function is brand-protection of domain names for large companies. If you're not big enough to pay a lot of money for that kind of service then you absolutely won't be able to protect your brand by trying to buy up all the possible domain variants -- there are simply too many of them, but equally, if you're not that big brand, you probably don't need to.
    – Spudley
    Feb 16, 2016 at 21:32
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You want to lock the domain the moment you purchase it in order to secure it to the one domain registrar you are working with.

Without locking, someone could sign up and transfer your domain name from your registrar to their registrar.

See: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/locked-2013-05-03-en

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    I think he meant "lock" in the sense of defensively registering domains. Regardless: even if a domain name is unlocked, you still need the EPP code to transfer it. Leaving a domain unlocked was risky before EPP codes were implemented, but that was a long time ago.
    – user8879
    Feb 16, 2016 at 19:19
  • I used "lock" in the sense that, if I create a blog "www.myname.com" I prevent other people from creating a blog called "www.myname.net" or "www.myname.org" and so on...
    – franz1
    Feb 16, 2016 at 19:35
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    If you lock each of those domains, then you're golden. You're better to lock the main domain then create subdomains. Like: example.com, smallblogs.example.com, bigblogs.example.com
    – Mike -- No longer here
    Feb 16, 2016 at 22:38

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